The first phase of AMD’s Computex campaign has reached its conclusion with Intel feeling the heat on all sides, right from the CPU gaming market to the enthusiast and server segments. Company CEO, Dr. Lisa Su unveiled the Zen 2 architecture based on the 7nm node this morning with the Ryzen 9 3900X being the highlight in the high-performance space and then later, the 64-core Epyc “Rome” processor impressing in terms of Data Center and Server workloads.

The 7nm processor was more than twice as fast compared to Intel’s Cascade Lake CPU in a biophysics benchmark (NAMD Apo1 v2.12). The test bench consisted of two 64 core Epyc (Rome) chips on one side and two 28-core Xeon Platinum 8280s on the other. The former posted 19.9ns/day while the 14nm platform was limited to 9.5ns/day. Looking at this comparison, it’s highly likely that the 64 Core part will target the Cascade Lake lineup, with lower pricing but at the same time boasting better performance.

One of the core advantages of the new 7nm Epyc CPUs is the integrated Server Controller Hub or SCH which eliminates the need for an external solution, and at the same time boosting the I/O capabilities of the platform, offering up to 162 PCIe lanes and 8-channel DDR4 RAM. The tentative release date for the Rome products is Q3 2019 along with the Navi graphics cards.

I love computer hardware and RPGs, and those two things are what drove me to start TechQuila. Other than that most of my time goes into reading psychology, writing (and reading) dark poetry and wondering about the vast undiscovered expanses of our universe.